The word albion the poetic name of great britain means white

Asked by: Dr. Mustafa Bergstrom MD

Score: 4.7/5
(62 votes)

The name Albion has been translated as “white land”; and the Romans explained it as referring to the chalk cliffs at Dover (Latin albus, “white”). …

What does Albion mean in Latin?

Can Albion be a name?

The name Albion is primarily a male name of English origin that means White Land — Great Britain. Oldest known name of Great Britain, said to have come from the Latin word Albus meaning white.

What do you call someone from Albion?

Albionian — a citizen of Albion with diverse cultures (like Italy and Italian) Albionese — a cultural nation of Albion (like Spain and Spanish) Albioner — a people founded on a Germanic city of Albion (like Hamburg and Hamburger)

What does the poetic name Albion stand for?

Albion is an ancient poetic name for Britain. May derive from the Latin «albus» referring to the whiteness of cliffs seen from the sea, or from the Celtic «alp». Used in England until the 1930s.

41 related questions found

Albion, the earliest-known name for the island of Britain. It was used by ancient Greek geographers from the 4th century bc and even earlier, who distinguished “Albion” from Ierne (Ireland) and from smaller members of the British Isles. The Greeks and Romans probably received the name from the Gauls or the Celts.

Englaland
The name “England” is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means “land of the Angles”. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages.

Did the Romans call England Albion?

Albion: definitive page. Albion is the original name of England which the land was known as by the Romans, probably from the Latin albus meaning white, and referring to the chalk cliffs along the south-east coast of England.

Does Albion mean England?

Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than ‘Britain’ today.

Where does the name Albion originate from?

It is of Latin and Celtic origin, and the meaning of Albion is “white; rock, crag”. Albion is an ancient poetic name for Britain. May derive from the Latin “albus” referring to the whiteness of cliffs seen from the sea, or from the Celtic “alp”.

What did the Vikings call England?

The Danelaw (/ˈdeɪnˌlɔː/, also known as the Danelagh; Old English: Dena lagu; Danish: Danelagen) was the part of England in which the laws of the Danes held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. The Danelaw contrasts with the West Saxon law and the Mercian law.

What’s the most British name?

The UK’s most common name is revealed…and it’s not what you think

Ranking in top 100 list	Name	Number of adults on Open Register1
1	David Smith	6,163
2	David Jones	5,959
3	John Smith	4,742
4	Michael Smith	4,321

When did Albion become England?

Albion, the earliest-known name for the island of Britain. It was used by ancient Greek geographers from the 4th century bc and even earlier, who distinguished “Albion” from Ierne (Ireland) and from smaller members of the British Isles. The Greeks and Romans probably received the name from the Gauls or the Celts.

What did the Celts call England?

‘Pretani‘, from which it came from, was a Celtic word that most likely meant ‘the painted people’. ‘Albion’ was another name recorded in the classical sources for the island we know as Britain. ‘Albion’ probably predates ‘Pretannia’.

Where is Albion in England?

Albion is the oldest known name of the island of Great Britain. It is derived from the Ancient Greek “Ἀλβίων.”

What do you call people from Albion?

Albionian – a citizen of Albion with diverse cultures (like Italy and Italian) Albionese – a cultural nation of Albion (like Spain and Spanish) Albioner – a people founded on a Germanic city of Albion (like Hamburg and Hamburger)

Who was the first king of Albion?

The monarchy in Albion was restored with the formation of the Kingdom of Albion, founded by the Hero of Bowerstone. Logan assumed the throne after the Hero of Bowerstone died, but lost the throne to his sibling, the Hero of Brightwall, after they orchestrated a revolution to overthrow the tyrannical Logan.

What was England called in Roman times?

Latin Britannia
Roman Britain, Latin Britannia, area of the island of Great Britain that was under Roman rule from the conquest of Claudius in 43 ce to the withdrawal of imperial authority by Honorius in 410 ce.

Why are West Brom called Albion?

The ‘Strollers’ name came about because there were no footballs on sale in West Bromwich, so a walk to nearby Wednesbury was necessary in order to buy one. They were renamed West Bromwich Albion in either 1879 or 1880, becoming the first team to adopt the Albion suffix.

What Albion means?

Answer: The word Albion was originally used to mean Britain, then only for parts of Britain with white cliffs. The name was first applied to a football team by Brighton and Hove as there are white cliffs in Dover. The name was later copied by other teams, eg. West Bromwich.

Who lived in England before the Vikings?

When the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians invaded Britain, during the 5th and 6th centuries AD, the area they conquered slowly became known as England (from Angle-land).

Did the Danes ever rule England?

Danish laws formed the basis of the Dane Law, and gave the name “The Danelaw” to an area in north and east England that came under Danish control in the latter half of the 9th century. The Viking raids culminated in 1013 CE when the Viking King Sweyn Forkbeard conquered the whole of England.

Did the Danes ever leave England?

It is that conquest, the Danish Conquest of 1016, that brought about the end of Anglo-Saxon England and, more importantly, put into motion the events of 1066.

Did the Vikings ever rule England?

The story of the Vikings in Britain is one of conquest, expulsion, extortion and reconquest. Their lasting legacy was the formation of the independent kingdoms of England and Scotland.

What are the oldest English surnames?

The oldest English surname on record was actually from East Anglia. Believe it or not, the oldest recorded English name is Hatt. An Anglo-Saxon family with the surname Hatt are mentioned in a Norman transcript, and is identified as a pretty regular name in the county.

What are the 7 types of English surnames?

There are 7 types of British surnames. Which one do you have?

• Place name surnames.
• Characteristic surnames.
• Occupation surnames.
• Geographical surnames.
• Patronage surnames.
• Patronymic or matronymic.
• Estate surnames.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the archaic name for Britain. For other uses, see Albion (disambiguation).

Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than ‘Britain’ today. The name for Scotland in most of the Celtic languages is related to Albion: Alba in Scottish Gaelic, Albain (genitive Alban) in Irish, Nalbin in Manx and Alban in Welsh and Cornish. These names were later Latinised as Albania and Anglicised as Albany, which were once alternative names for Scotland.

New Albion and Albionoria («Albion of the North») were briefly suggested as names of Canada during the period of the Canadian Confederation.^[1][2] Francis Drake gave the name New Albion to what is now California when he landed there in 1579.

Etymology[edit]

The toponym is thought to derive from the Greek word Ἀλβίων,^[3] Latinised as Albiōn (genitive Albionis). It was seen in the Proto-Celtic nasal stem *Albiyū (oblique *Albiyon-) and survived in Old Irish as Albu (genitive Albann). The name originally referred to Britain as a whole, but was later restricted to Caledonia (giving the modern Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland: Alba).

The root *albiyo- is also found in Gaulish and Galatian albio- ‘world’ and Welsh elfydd (Old Welsh elbid ‘earth, world, land, country, district’). It may be related to other European and Mediterranean toponyms such as Alpes, Albania or the river god Alpheus (originally ‘whitish’). It has two possible etymologies: either from the Proto-Indo-European word *albʰo- ‘white’ (cf. Ancient Greek ἀλφός, Latin albus ), or from *alb- ‘hill’.

The derivation from a word for ‘white’ is thought to refer perhaps to the white Cliffs of Dover in the southeast, visible from mainland Europe and a landmark at the narrowest crossing point. On the other hand, Celtic linguist Xavier Delamarre argued that it originally meant ‘the world above, the visible world’, in opposition to ‘the world below’, i.e. the underworld.^[4][5][6]

Attestation[edit]

Judging from Avienius’ Ora Maritima, for which it is considered to have served as a source, the Massaliote Periplus (originally written in the 6th century BC, translated by Avienus at the end of the 4th century AD), does not use the name Britannia; instead it speaks of nēsos Iernōn kai Albiōnōn «the islands of the Iernians and the Albiones».^[7] Likewise, Pytheas (c. 320 BC), as directly or indirectly quoted in the surviving excerpts of his works in later writers, speaks of Albiōn and Iernē (Britain and Ireland). Pytheas’s grasp of the νῆσος Πρεττανική (nēsos Prettanikē, «Prettanic island») is somewhat blurry, and appears to include anything he considers a western island, including Thule.^[8]

The name Albion was used by Isidore of Charax (1st century BC – 1st century AD)^[9] and subsequently by many classical writers. By the 1st century AD, the name refers unequivocally to Great Britain. But this «enigmatic name for Britain, revived much later by Romantic poets like William Blake, did not remain popular among Greek writers. It was soon replaced by Πρεττανία (Prettanía) and Βρεττανία (Brettanía ‘Britain’), Βρεττανός (Brettanós ‘Briton’), and Βρεττανικός (Brettanikós, meaning the adjective British). From these words the Romans derived the Latin forms Britannia, Britannus, and Britannicus respectively».^[10]

The Pseudo-Aristotelian text On the Universe (393b) has:

Ἐν τούτῳ γε μὴν νῆσοι μέγισται τυγχάνουσιν οὖσαι δύο, Βρεττανικαὶ λεγόμεναι, Ἀλβίων καὶ Ἰέρνη
There are two very large islands in it, called the British Isles, Albion and Ierne.^[11] (Britain and Ireland).

Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History (4.16.102) likewise has:

It was itself named Albion, while all the islands about which we shall soon briefly speak were called the Britanniae.^[12][13]

In his 2nd century Geography, Ptolemy uses the name Ἀλουΐων (Alouiōn, «Albion») instead of the Roman name Britannia, possibly following the commentaries of Marinus of Tyre.^[14] He calls both Albion and Ierne νῆσοι Βρεττανικαὶ (nēsoi Brettanikai, «British Isles»).^[15][16]

In 930, the English king Æthelstan used the title Rex et primicerius totius Albionis regni («King and chief of the whole realm of Albion»).^[17] His nephew, Edgar the Peaceful, styled himself Totius Albionis imperator augustus «Augustus Emperor of all Albion» in 970.^[18]

The giants of Albion[edit]

A legend exists in various forms that giants were either the original inhabitants, or the founders of the land named Albion.

Geoffrey of Monmouth[edit]

According to the 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae («The History of The Kings of Britain») by Geoffrey of Monmouth, the exiled Brutus of Troy was told by the goddess Diana:

Brutus! there lies beyond the Gallic bounds
An island which the western sea surrounds,
By giants once possessed, now few remain
To bar thy entrance, or obstruct thy reign.
To reach that happy shore thy sails employ
There fate decrees to raise a second Troy
And found an empire in thy royal line,
Which time shall ne’er destroy, nor bounds confine.

After many adventures, Brutus and his fellow Trojans escape from Gaul and «set sail with a fair wind towards the promised island».^[19]

«The island was then called Albion, and inhabited by none but a few giants. Notwithstanding this, the pleasant situation of the places, the plenty of rivers abounding with fish, and the engaging prospect of its woods, made Brutus and his company very desirous to fix their habitation in it.» After dividing up the island between themselves «at last Brutus called the island after his own name Britain, and his companions Britons; for by these means he desired to perpetuate the memory of his name».^[20] Geoffrey goes on to recount how the last of the giants are defeated, the largest one called Goëmagot is flung over a cliff by Corineus.

Anglo-Norman Albina story[edit]

Later, in the 14th century, a more elaborate tale was developed, claiming that Albina and her sisters founded Albion and procreated there a race of giants.^[21] The «Albina story» survives in several forms, including the octosyllabic Anglo-Norman poem «Des grantz geanz» dating to 1300–1334.^{[22][a][23][24][b][26]} According to the poem, in the 3970th year of the creation of the world,^[c] a king of Greece married his thirty daughters into royalty, but the haughty brides colluded to eliminate their husbands so they would be subservient to no one. The youngest would not be party to the crime and divulged the plot, so the other princesses were confined to an unsteerable rudderless ship and set adrift, and after three days reached an uninhabited land later to be known as «Britain». The eldest daughter Albina (Albine) was the first to step ashore and lay claim to the land, naming it after herself. At first, the women gathered acorns and fruits, but once they learned to hunt and obtain meat, it aroused their lecherous desires. As no other humans inhabited the land, they mated with evil spirits called «incubi», and subsequently with the sons they begot, engendering a race of giants. These giants are evidenced by huge bones which are unearthed. Brutus arrived 260 years after Albina, 1136 before the birth of Christ, but by then there were only 24 giants left, due to inner strife.^[26] As with Geoffrey of Monmouth’s version, Brutus’s band subsequently overtake the land, defeating Gogmagog in the process.^[26]

Manuscripts and forms[edit]

The octosyllabic poem appears as a prologue to 16 out of 26 manuscripts of the Short Version of the Anglo-Norman prose Brut, which derives from Wace. Octosyllabic is not the only form the Anglo-Norman Des Grantz Geanz, there are five forms, the others being: the alexandrine, prose, short verse, and short prose versions.^[22][27] The Latin adaptation of the Albina story, De Origine Gigantum, appeared soon later, in the 1330s.^[28] It has been edited by Carey & Crick (1995),^[29] and translated by Ruth Evans (1998).^[30]

Diocletian’s daughters[edit]

A variant tale occurs in the Middle English prose Brut (Brie ed., The Brut or the Chronicles of England 1906–1908) of the 14th century, an English rendition of the Anglo-Norman Brut deriving from Wace.^[d][31][32] In the Prolog of this chronicle, it was King «Dioclician» of «Surrey» (Syria^[33]), who had 33 daughters, the eldest being called «Albyne». The princesses are all banished to Albion after plotting to murder their husbands, where they couple with the local demons; their offspring became a race of giants. The chronicle asserts that during the voyage Albyne entrusted the fate of the sisters to «Appolyn,» which was the god of their faith. The Syrian king who was her father sounds much like a Roman emperor,^[33] though Diocletian (3rd century) would be anachronistic, and Holinshed explains this as a bungling of the legend of Danaus and his fifty daughters who founded Argos.^[34]

Later treatment of the myth[edit]

Because Geoffrey of Monmouth’s work was regarded as fact until the late 17th century, the story appears in most early histories of Britain. Wace, Layamon, Raphael Holinshed, William Camden and John Milton repeat the legend and it appears in Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene.^[35]

William Blake’s poems Milton and Jerusalem feature Albion as an archetypal giant representing humanity.^{[citation needed]}

In 2010, artist Mark Sheeky donated the 2008 painting «Two Roman Legionaries Discovering The God-King Albion Turned Into Stone» to the Grosvenor Museum collection.^[36]

See also[edit]

• Britain (place name) – Place name
• Clas Myrddin, an early name for Great Britain given in the Third Series of Welsh Triads.
• New Albion – Historical name of the United States Pacific coast
• Nordalbingia, based on the Latin name for the Elbe River: Alba
• Perfidious Albion – Pejorative epithet for Great Britain
• Terminology of the British Isles – Overview of the terminology of the British Isles

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

Test

ENGLISH
SPEAKING COUNTRIES

1.    
What
is the national emblem of England?

a)     violet         b)
rose       c) tulip      d) daffodil

2.    
What
does the word “Albion” the poetic name of Great Britain mean?

a)     black     b)
red     c) white     d) green   

3.    
What
is the nickname of the flag of the UK?

a)     Union Jack    b)
stars & stripes   c) St. Patrick    d) St. Andrew

    
4. What is the name of the Londonʼs residence of the Queen?

         
a)Windsor Palace  b) Kensington Palace  c) Westminster  d) Buckingham Palace

    
5. What is the official residence of the Prime Minister of Great Britain?

         
a) №10 Downing Street    b) Bakerʼs street    c) White Hall      d) Westminster

    
6. Where was William Shakespeare born?

         
a) Sheffield     b) Coventry     c) Stratford-on-Avon      d) Glasgow 

    
7. How many states are there in the USA?

         
a) 48                b) 50         c) 52       d) 54

    
8. Where does the president of the USA live and work?

         
a)
the White House     b) Congress     c) the Pentagon     d) Capitol Hill

    
9. What is the biggest state of the USA?

          
a)  Texas     b) Illinois    c) California     d) Alaska

    
10.
Who was the first president of the USA?

          
a) George Washington   b) John Adams   c) Abraham Lincoln   d) Bill Clinton

    
11. Who was the president of the USA when slaves were freed?

          
a) George Washington   b) John Adams   c) Abraham Lincoln   d) Thomas
Jefferson  

    
12. In which city is Hollywood?

          
a) New York     b) San Francisco     c) Los Angeles     d) Chicago

    
13. The American flag has….

          
a) 13 stripes     b) 23 stripes     c) 30 stripes     d) 50 stripes

    
14. When do Americans celebrate Independence Day?

          
a) February, 14     b) May, 28     c) July, 4     d) December, 25

    
15. What ship did the first American settlers come to America in?

          
a) the Adventure    b) the Resolution    c) Santa Maria    d) the Mayflower

    
16. What state does the capital of the USA belong to?

          
a) the State of Pennsylvania  b) the District of Columbia  c) Florida  d)
California

   
17.  How long did the War of the Roses last?

          
a) 10 years     b) 20 years     c) 30 years     d) 40 years

   
18.  What is “Disneyland”?

          
a)  industry town     b) name of a square    c) cartoon      d) Childrenʼs park

   
19. Where is the Statue of Liberty situated?

          
a) New York     b) Massachusetts    c) Los Angeles     d) Washington

   
20. Whose monument stands on the Trafalgar Square in London?

         
a) Winston Churchill   b) Admiral Nelson   c) Captain Drake   d) Julius Caesar 

   
21. What is the oldest University of Great Britain?

         
a)
Oxford     b) Cambridge     c) Exeter     d) Harvard

   
22. What is the capital of Australia?

         
a) Sydney     b) Canberra     c) Melbourne     d) Ottawa

   
23. What is the capital of Canada?

      
a) Toronto      b) Ottawa     c) Sydney     d) Canberra

24.
Who was the first Englishman who sailed round the world?

     
a) Captain James Cook     b) Admiral Nelson     c) Captain Drake     d)  Casey
Jones

25. How
did the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (William and Kate Middleton) name their

     
first  child (son) …

a)     John Louis      b)
Philipp      c) Theodore William    d) George Alexander Louis

Key
to the test

1.-b

2.-c

3.-a

4.-d

5.-a

6.-c

7.-b

8.-a

9.-d

10.-a

11.-c

12.-c

13.-a

14.-c

15.-d

16.-b

17.-c

18.-d

19.-a

20.-b

21.-a

22.-b

23.-b

24.-c

25.-d

   Муниципальное  бюджетное общеобразовательное учреждение

«Турунтаевская средняя общеобразовательная школа»

Томского района Томской области

с.Турунтаево, улица Школьная,22                                   94-70-95

E-mail: Turuntschool@rambler.ru

---

Викторина по английскому языку

«What have you learned about

the United Kingdom of  Great Britain  and  Northern Ireland?»

                                                                                   Выполнила

                                       ученица 9 класса  

                                                     Мирахмедова Маргарита

                                                          Руководитель Бухгольц В.Э.

2013

The United Kingdom of  Great Britain  and  Northern Ireland

 1. What kind of state is the United Kingdom? (a parliamentary monarchy)

 2. What does the word «Albion», the poetic name of Great Britain, mean?(white)

 3. What is the national emblem of England? (a rose)

 4. What is the national emblem of Scotland? (a thistle)

 5. What is the national emblem of Wales? (a daffodil)

 6. What is the national emblem of Northern Ireland? (a shamrock and a red hand)

 7. What is the capital of England? (London)

 8. What is the capital of Scotland? (Edinburgh)

 9. What is the capital of Northern Ireland? (Belfast)

 10. What is the capital of Wales? (Cardiff)

 11. What is the nickname of the flag of the UK?(Union Jack)

 12. What is the name of the London residence of Queen Elizabeth II?(Buckingham Palace)

 13. What is the official residence of the Prime Minister of the UK? (No.10,Downing St)

 14. Who is the architect of the famous St.Paul’s Cathedral? (Sir Christopher Wren)

 15. What is the nickname of London’s Underground? (the Tube)

 16. Where is the residence of the head of the English Church?(In Canterbury)

 17. What is the seat of the British Government?(the Houses of Parliament)

 18. Where can you see wax figures of many famous people?(in Madame Tussaud’s)

 19. How many bronze lions can you see at the foot of  the  monument to Admiral Nelson?(4)

 20. How many bridges cross the Thames?(14)

 21. What was the first name of London? (Llyn-Dyn)

 22. What is the largest museum in London?(the British Museum)

 23. Who was the first woman Prime Minister in the UK?(Margaret Thatcher)

 24. What is the name of the  first Queen of the United Kingdom?(Victoria)

 25. What is the biggest city in Scotland?(Glasgow)

 26. What is the highest mountain in Scotland? (Ben Nevis)

 27. What is the highest mountain Wales? (Snowdon)

 28. What is the traditional male costume in Scotland? (the kilt)

 29. Where can you see the tombs of many British kings and queens and other famous people, such as Charles Dickens and Rudyard Kipling? (in Westminster Abbey)

 30. What is another name of the Houses of Parliament? (Palace of Westminster)

 31. How many towers does the Tower of London consist of? (13)

         GOOD LUCK!